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SeekingBostonMarathon is an amateur's journey to race in the ultimate annual marathon--the Boston Athletic Association's Boston Marathon. This is not an olympic runner or professional runner's advice site, but an "average joe" who got hooked on running and finally reached hallowed ground in 2010 and is constantly seeking to get back to Boston.

Dilemma Monday

Do you ever have someone say something to you or ask you something where you have a delayed reaction and wished you would have responded differently?

I'm two weeks away from my first marathon in two years and was excited to go out for what would be my last challenging long run last Saturday. A short long run...a 13 miler. Someone from my race group said, "hey, I read your last blog, I think you're crazy to be following the Furman (FIRST Marathon Training Plan.) Considering the proximity to the race, it struck me as a bit odd to be questioning my training. I posted the question to my DailyMile, "When should this advise be offered or should he
have stuck to encouragement two weeks away from the race?" I got some heated reactions.

Some of the responses;

JGal: "definitely should not have brought that up, especially since you can't
change a thing and have done great work on your own programme. i can so
relate on a totally unrelated level... my phd advisor keeps doubting
that i'll making the thesis deadline coming up in < 3 weeks. i'm
like, how bout some positivity?! so just keep up your own work and prove
him wrong. :)"

Bonnie G: "People have bad timing with opinions a lot of the time. I would stick
wit what you've been doing two weeks out. And as someone who has a
training plan inspired by the first plan I don't agree with him. Go run
your race Ty!"

Matthew: "knock the race out of the park, then stick the training plan up his ass.
That's probably what I would try and do at this point in time..."

Jess U. "Um... he should have stuck with encouraging you!!!

Julie: "It think it's just an opinion. From what I hear it has worked
well for many people. Not cool of him to voice his opinion so close to
game time though."

Eric: "He should have kept his opinion to himself, maybe bought it up after
your race. At this point don't change anything, a plan is a plan. I use
the FIRST and it helped me. Good luck with your race."

Morey: "I thought you were crazy too- i just didn't say anything. ;)
But- let the race results be the judge. High intensity-low mileage vs
low intensity high mileage. Let's see what happens during the race-
give it your all, and compare results."

Dustin: "Clearly not a bright move by him."

Mollie: "Seems very strange. At this point, the race itself will tell, no point
in guessing. And I have had friends who have had lots of success with
FIRST (heck, I have been running kind of a modified FIRST ever since I
hurt myself, and I've gotten faster), so who knows? I bet you hit it out
of the park."

John T: "Encouragement is definitely the most important thing to hear two weeks
out....but you are a highly proficient marathon runner and a comment
like that shouldn't make much impact."

Greg S.: "The FIRST training plan has helped many runners PR. I'll bet that guy
has never tried it, so his opinion shouldn't count. You've done the
training now kill that race."

The last two weeks of a plan (taper) are more about the mental preparation and of course diet and rest. Not sure this comment helps feed the mental preparation. Have you had someone offer advice this close to a race, and how did
you handle it? Should this opinion have been offered or kept to
themselves until after the race to either congratulate or say "I told
you so!?"

My response to the question was probably way too polite to the effect of, "we shall see," or it seems to work for me." By the way...the name of the blog that he read was "Back to Seeking Boston Marathon" which talked about how NOT running Boston fueled my determination to get back there. I proceeded to have a reallly crappy long run that day. I rebounded nicely yesterday and today. From here on out, I'll focus on Back to Seeking Boston Marathon.

Comments

That was really... unnecessary. It would have been much more appropriate to say something like "I'm really excited to see how your marathon goes. I've never been sold on the FIRST plan but maybe you'll change my mind!" Sometimes people just don't think before they speak. I'm actually eyeing the very same plan for my marathon training this summer/fall. I just don't have time to run 5 days a week. I'm not aiming to be the fastest runner ever but I think I'll certainly be prepared after using the plan :)